A conservative group is sending robo calls to households in the metro area attacking Democratic congressional candidate Joe Miklosi over a pay dispute with a former staffer.

The problem is, the pay dispute has already been resolved after the Colorado Department of Labor[3] ruled the complaint had no merit, said Miklosi campaign consultant Steve Welchert.

“This isn’t the first attempt by Compass Colorado[4] to try to spin this into a story,” said campaign consultant Steve Welchert.

And, he said, Compass Colorado, the group behind the calls, is desperate to use questionable calls to turn the focus off Miklosi’s Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman[5], who has made national headlines for his birther[6] comments and then his ghastly handling of the situation[7]. Even Coffman said his actions were “boneheaded.”

“Joe Miklosi refuses to live by the employee protection laws he hypocritically supported in the state Legislature,” Compass Colorado President T.Q. Houlton[8] said in a news release. “This is a slap in the face to the hard-working families in Colorado who expect Joe Miklosi to stand up for their interests.”

He referred to a story in The Colorado Observer[9] about former Miklosi finance director Kirsten Boyd[10], who “said she filed a complaint for back pay with the Department of Labor.” The story was reported in May, but doesn’t mention that complaint, which was filed in November, was dismissed in January.

The complaint was determined to have no merit because Boyd was not an employee and had no contract with the campaign, a labor department spokeswoman said. Boyd could not be reached for comment.

Houlton said today he had no idea the complaint was dismissed, but he still plans to go ahead with the robocalls[11] this afternoon. They will be sent to households in Miklosi’s state House district in southeast Denver and in Aurora, home to the newly drawn 6th Congressional District[12], which now is much friendlier to Democrats.

Here’s the transcript of the robocall:

Good afternoon,

I’m calling you today to let you know about a labor dispute between state Rep. Joe Miklosi and a former campaign employee. Joe Miklosi pretends to be on the side of hard-working Colorado families. He even supported ‘prompt pay’ legislation that protects workers and holds employers accountable. But, Joe Miklosi plays by his own set of rules and has refused to pay his former employee. The dispute is so bad the employee even filed a complaint with the Department of Labor. Is Joe Miklosi really someone we can trust to stand up for Colorado’s working families and labor unions?

Call Joe Miklosi at 303-745-4850 and tell him to stop the hypocrisy and pay his employee.